DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT. We all know this. Sadly :(

A/N: If you review I'll update faster :-) This is my first fic. So please flame me gently. .

Beta Reader: berryblue100

EPOV

Ten years. Ten, long, exhausting years. My family had forgiven me for the most part. They knew what my intentions were. If they didn't, they'd have never uprooted and moved simply because I asked them to. Her safety, her happiness, was all that mattered and all my actions were made with her in mind. My angel, my Bella, could live life like a normal human. I knew her heart would break from my decision. But it'd heal. I knew it would heal. My Bella was strong enough to move on. She had more strength than I'd ever possess. In time, when she was married with children, maybe even grandchildren, she'd thank me. She would never have those things if she was with me.

The day I left was the single most painful day of my existence. After I had met her, for the first time in more than eighty years, my dead heart had learned to beat again. I never knew anything was missing in my life. Not until she turned my world upside down. She had streaked across the night sky that was my life. I could see the heavens with her. Jump, she'd say. 'How high?' would be my response. God, she was amazing. She was my everything… and still is. No amount of time could change the way I feel about her. She completed me, and that day, I ripped my still beating heart out of my chest. It was the best thing I could do for her. For me, short of her dying, it was the worst.

Not a second passed that I didn't think of her or wonder how she was doing. Several times I almost went back to Forks to beg for her forgiveness. But I refused to let her suffer from my weakness. My world could only give her death or eternal damnation and she deserved neither. So, I went to South America to find that bitch of a vampire. But it was as if she had never existed, the exact same thing I had told Bella. Apparently, we were good at that, good at disappearing.

For most of the last decade, I stayed away from my family, unable to deal with their questions or Alice's depression. My closest sister refused to speak to me. Her mind was only filled with her anger for being forced to leave Bella and how much of a selfish idiot she thought I was. 'Selfish? How the hell was it selfish?' I would think to myself. I left the only good thing that had ever come into my life for her benefit. But the accusations wouldn't stop. So I did the only that, according to Alice, I was good at it. I left.

Since my family could not return to Forks, we moved to Alaska. At first it was only Esme and Carlisle. The others had enough of 'family living' after what I'd put them through. Jasper had taken Alice on a whirl wind shopping tour of Europe in an attempt to alleviate her depression. Rose and Emmett went to a private island in the Aegean Sea. Eventually they came back, mostly for Esme's benefit. She loved having us there. And I returned as well.

Esme welcomed me with open arms, as if nothing had happened. Carlisle was the same way. However, the others were different story. Rosalie couldn't get over the excitement of the family being 'how it should be'. She was so hard to listen to. She caused my depression to come in waves by thinking of how happy she was about my decision. Emmett, although while not elated like Rosalie, was not as angry as he once was. Jasper was still regretting the birthday fiasco even though that wasn't the only reason for my decision. It was 'just the straw that broke the camel's back'. On more than once occasion I had tried to reason with him, but to no avail. Alice was as angry with me as the first day. No one else but Jasper and I knew it. For the sake of the family, she had put on a happy face. But between what I 'heard' and Jasper felt, we knew she was everything but.

I had only been back for a couple weeks now. My boxes were still packed in my third story room. It was a tradition. The houses we bought always had three stories. I always had a room there. Normally I had the one with the best view if Alice was feeling generous. This time she wasn't. It didn't have the best view, but it was certainly not the worst.

The house was on the outskirts a little town and backed right up to the large forests of 'America's final frontier'. My room had a balcony that overlooked the yard facing the forest. Alice's was similar, but she also had a better view of the nearby lake. The house had been built to Esme's specifications nine years ago. And was almost the exact replica of our home in Forks. I don't know why she did it. Maybe it was to commemorate our 'happiest time'. For my benefit, she tried very hard to not think about it, but that was what she had called it. 'Our happiest time': when all of her children were finally content, all six of us.

BPOV

With as much stealth as I could manage, I sneaked up on to the bed, crawling on all fours towards the brown naked mass of man that lay there. He was sprawled out stomach down, almost covering our entire king sized bed. One muscular arm was thrust beneath the pillow, while the other dangled off the side of the bed. His jaw hung wide open. Perhaps a deliberate attempt to catch flies? I smirked at that thought. His feet cleared the end of the bed by a couple inches. When we bought the bed, I had reminded him of his habit of scooting down the bed as he slept, but he assured me the bed was long enough.

I slowly dragged the white sheet off his body, exposing every inch of his taut bronze body. Once the sheet exposed everything but his luscious back side, I threw my leg over him, straddling his waist. I swear, a nuclear bomb could drop on our house and he would not wake. I smiled and bit my lip to suppress a giggle as I bent down to his ear, bracing my hands on those wonderful shoulder blades of his for support.

I blew softly into his ear. "Wake up," I whispered, my failing attempt at being seducing. Not that I had much to worry about, he couldn't wake up even if I told him I had learned something from the Kama Sutra. What can I say? My man was a hard sleeper. Luckily for me, I had a back-up plan and one that has never failed yet.

"Hey, wake up," I asked again as I softly bit down on his ear lobe. It probably lasted a second, maybe, before I was flipped over to my back with a very awake Jacob nestled between my thighs.

Somehow during the flipping, my hand had wound up against his face, which he eagerly kissed good morning before taking it in to his much larger hand, allowing it to rest upon his neck. I giggled at the sight of him. Deep ridges ran along the right side of his face where he had slept on crumpled sheets, causing his smile to crinkle on one side. I couldn't help but stare, despite the wrinkles from the sheets, he still looked breath taking.

"What?" he asked, noting my not too subtle staring.

"Nothing," I smiled and shook my head, continuing my evaluation of the perfect specimen in front of me.

His thick black hair was over do for a cut and stuck out in unkempt, messy disarray. A painful pang ripped across my chest at how disturbingly similar the style was. Fortunately, I didn't have much time to dwell on it before Jake leaned over and captured my lips with his.

"Good morning, my beautiful wife," he growled as he playfully kissed his way across my neck. My hand was still captured in his, my fingers reflexively curling around his thumb, while my other hand stroked the smooth firmness of his bicep.

"Morning, my sweet husband," I responded before kissing his nose and pushing him over.

A pout overcame his face as I climbed, well, stumbled, from our bed and over to the walk-in closet. "That's it? That's all the good morning I get?" He flopped back down to the bed, and continued to whine, "Come on, Bells, you got me all keyed up for nothing."

Grabbing a pair of his boxers and jeans, I made my way over to the bed before throwing them in his face. "Come on," I laughed, playfully smacking his thigh as he pouted from beneath the clothes. "Get up! We don't want to miss the plane for our great Alaskan adventure!" I waltzed into our bathroom and began to brush my teeth.

I was excited and apprehensive at the same time. A family vacation had been my idea. Mary and Elizabeth were finally old enough to appreciate things in nature, and I wanted to take them on a vacation they'd always remember. I had suggested Yellowstone but Jacob shot it down with a "It's so overdone, Bella. Where's your sense of adventure?" The girls, of course, took their father's side. They were 'daddy's girls' through and through. So, Jake suggested Alaska, the girls pleading at his side.

It wasn't that I was 'terrified' of the untamed wild. We were going to be staying in a very nice resort for its grand opening. It was because of, well, the other 'people' that lived there. What if he was there? I shook my head sadly as I spat the frothy mix into the sink. It was ten years after the fact and I still couldn't think, let alone say, his name. It was utterly pathetic. I have nothing to be unhappy about. There was no reason for me to bepining or missing him. I had a well paying job and I was married to a great man who gave me two beautiful daughters. We had a beautiful two story home complete with a white picket fence. Hell, we even had a Golden Retriever named Ol' Dan! With the exception of Jacob being Quileute, we looked like you're stereotypical American family. I had nothing to complain about. My life was complete. I should be thanking him for leaving me, for not loving me. It was a blessing that he had left me out there in the woods and told me how he really felt. Angry tears stung my eyes as I stared at myself in the mirror. How pathetic. I angrily shook my head; I wasn't going to think about this. Not today, not ever. I'll be true to my word, he will not interfere with my perfect life.

I turned the faucet off after splashing my face with water and blotting it dry with a towel. After faking a sneeze, I blew my nose with some tissue, getting rid of the evidence of my stupidity. It wasn't fair to Jacob for me to think about him.

After he left, Jacob was there for me. He was there through everything, through the good times and the break downs. I guess it was graduation when I realized he wasn't coming back for me. That he was gone for good. It was then I started letting Jacob love me the way he wanted to. It was only fair, right? I mean, I loved Jacob too. He was amazing; he was my best friend, and my confidante. Besides, he was never coming back.

I was a sophomore in college when Jacob proposed. It was inevitable; everyone was waiting for the day, even me. I said yes and vowed to myself to be the perfect wife, and to never let him interfere with that. So I gave myself to Jacob as wholly as I could, and forever became Isabella Marie Black.

Jake was nowhere to be seen when I exited the bathroom. Depending on the situation, that could be good and bad. If it was good, he was out of bed and hopefully clothed. If it was bad, he would be standing around the corner waiting to whisk me back off to bed. Sighing, I very cautiously made my way out of the room.

Shockingly, I made it all the way down the stairs without running into Jacob, my girls, or the floor. This was a good day, I couldn't help but smile. The smell of pancakes hit my nose as I came into the kitchen. A mop of dark curly hair bounded over to me. "Mama! Mama!" Mary Alice, seven years old and the eldest by two minutes, was latched to my hand. "Look! We made pancakes!"

"I see that! It smells delicious," I hid my disappointment as I looked around my damaged, dirtied kitchen. Oh well, Jacob could clean up this mess. He was the one who had taught them to make pancakes. I looked down at our clasped hands, I looked like a ghost compared to them. Thanks to my wonderful contribution to the gene pool, they weren't as dark as their father. But, thankfully, they weren't as pasty as their mother. As she let go to run to her father, I pulled her back by the shirt collar to quickly tie her shoulder length hair back. "Now what should good chefs always do?" I gently reminded her. She poked her tongue out and I had to resist the urge to laugh.

"They always put their hair up," she recited. "Because eating air is better than eating hair. Can I go see Daddy now?"

Daddy's girl she was. No one wants to spend time with their mother. Although, I'd have to admit, with Jake as a dad, I don't blame them. If he was my dad, I'd ditch Renee any day. But, thankfully, he isn't. We may be living in the south, but not that kind of south.

"Is Mama up?" I heard Beth ask as soon as Mary hit the living room. I entered right behind them.

"Yep, but I already showed her," smugness was already evident as she plopped down next to Jake on the floor.

"Mary Alice! You said WE were going to show her! You already got to show Daddy!" Elizabeth jumped up from her bean bag. Her tiny hands were balled up and on her hips. Jake and I prepared for the tennis match of words that was about to ensue.

"Na-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Na-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!" Elizabeth took a step towards Mary, the tell-tale getting-ready-to-pummel move, time to break it up. Darn, and Jake and I were already ready for the always entertaining name calling match.

"Come here Elizabeth," I sat down on the other side of Jake, as Elizabeth bounded over and into my lap. "Are you all finished packing?" Maybe not an interesting topic, but better then the pancake display war.

"Yes mommy, but why do we have the marshmallow jackets?" Mary Alice crinkled her nose. "I feel like that the fluffy guy on the tire commercial." What a fashion junkie, just like her namesake.

Jake chuckled, "That would be the Michelin Man, and Alaska is way colder than Arizona."

"But its summer," she retorted, "And Ms. Medellin said that their summers were warm and you can wear short sleeves."

"Yes, but we don't know until we get there. Besides, we might go up on some mountains and it's always cold there. Anyways, let's go eat those delicious pancakes you two made. And then it's time for..." Jake threw out his hands, prompting them to answer.

"OUR GREAT ALASKAN ADVENTURE!!" They simultaneously screeched before dashing into the kitchen.

I was already half way up from the couch when Jake grabbed my wrist, and dragged me back down to him. "Mr. Black, we have to get ready."

A deep chuckle rumbled through his chest as he pressed his lips to my forehead. "Did we get a suite? With a room for the girls?"

I smiled into his chest and nodded.

"Good, because I was definitely in the mood for playing Little Red Riding Hood. So you had better pack your costume."

"Oh, can I be the big bad wolf this time?" I tried to ask as seriously as I could, but my cheeks were already stained red.

"Oh," he laughed, kissing my cheek, "I don't think you're qualified."

"That's too bad," I giggled as I finally untangled myself from him and got up.

"Hey Bella?" He still had a hold of my hand as he looked up at me from the couch.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

I couldn't help the stupid grin that spread over my face when he said that. He meant it, and I knew it.

"I love you too, Jake."

A/N: Six including Bella

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